Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31
By Sara Israfilbayova – Trend:
The British company BP plans to begin exploratory drilling at the Shah Deniz field in 2020 to study the potential of deep laying formations, said BP CEO Bob Dudley, answering questions during the company’s presentation following the second quarter of this year, Trend reports
He said that the deep horizons of the field have great potential, amounting to many billions of cubic feet of natural gas.
"During the appraisal drilling several years ago, BP discovered gas-bearing horizons located below those in development. They were designated by the company as “pre-fasila”, that is, the horizons located deeper than the most productive reservoir of the Azerbaijani shelf “Fasila” or “Break Suite”, he noted.
The company at that time couldn’t bring drilling to the full opening of this gas-bearing zone due to difficult geological conditions, in particular abnormally high pressure, he said.
Therefore, further exploration was postponed, he added.
Now, with the launch of the second phase of the development of the Shah Deniz field, BP plans to return to the project that received the conditional name “Shah Deniz 3”, he said.
Dudley said that in 2019, the company plans to begin exploration on the Shafag-Asiman contract area. However, for this, the floating drilling rig, which is now in use by another company, should be freed, he noted.
This rig is called “Heydar Aliyev”, engaged in operations in “Absheron” area, by the order of French company Total, he said.
Referring to another project, exploration areas in the Shallow Water Absheron Peninsula (SWAP) contract area, Dudley said that the drilling of the first exploratory well there is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2020.
Although some say that Azerbaijan is an oil and gas province in the late stage of development, BP believes that there is still great potential there, he noted.
“In general, we still have a lot to do in Azerbaijan,” said Dudley.
